Mere Christianity

Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, C. S. Lewis finds a common ground on which all those who have Christian faith can stand together, proving that "at the center of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.

Specious arguments,fantasy rationalizations and simplistic assumptions by a believer desperate to justify his own delusional faith in an imaginary world. C.S. Lewis ,to say the least, was a clumsy practitioner of magical slight of hand using as props metaphors, analogies and similes.

AmandaVollmershausen
Mar 16, 2013

This book has blessed my life! No doubt, it's good for anyone questioning the reason of faith, how Christianity makes sense, or even just exploring what it means to be a Christian. Lewis's writing is gentle and comical, and similes or metaphors are used for almost every new concept. I found answers for questions I've always had inside my head that never seemed important enough to ask, and thus, realized their importance! By another token, I found that conclusions I've secretly reached on my own in response to reading scripture and thinking about it are actually theological ponderings. For the ordinary Christian (by this I mean not formally educated in theology), this book will be both a shock and a tremendous relief, as it answers the hard questions that aren't the ones contemporary Christians may think of (i.e., homosexuality in the church, evolution).

Mere Christianity, based on a series of radio broadcasts Lewis gave in the mid-1940s, is a defence and an explanation of Christianity as Lewis saw it. This book was recommended to me by an evangelical colleague who was aware of my interest in Christian thinking.

The book is divided into four main sections, each containing several chapters. In very broad terms, the sections deal with (1) an argument from morality for the existence of God, (2) the nature of God and why we need God's assistance to repent our sins, (3) Christian morality, and (4) theological topics on the more mysterious aspects of God's nature and goals, including the Trinity, the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Salvation.

Lewis was not a theologian and I have read elsewhere that his arguments are now considered weak and, in some cases, wrong. But he is a good writer and makes effective use of metaphors and analogies to explain his arguments. Although some of Lewis's explanations of Christian virtues (such as compassion and forgiveness) are commendable, some interpretations are very conservative (e.g., wives must obey their husbands, marriage is for life, and sex is only allowed within marriage). It is probably the section on morality that has placed this book high on the list of influential books for American evangelicals.

Ultimately, if you accept Lewis's premises (that our moral sense is innate and not taught, and that we are flawed and sinful), then you may find the arguments persuasive and logical. If, however, you do not accept the premises, the book only explains a somewhat conservative Christian doctrine, and is unlikely to convert you.

CS Lewis is brilliant in his ability to explain what many people experience and feel but cannot verbalize. This book is definitely a book I would not want to go through life without ever reading. One of those books (for me) that I come back to periodically.

Quotes

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. ... If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthy pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. ... I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and help others to do the same.

BOOK II: Chapter 2: page 33: Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed...It has just that queer twist about it that real things have.